The Sea of Tranquility

SYNOPSIS:

“I live in a world without magic or miracles.
A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you.
A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.”

Full of rage and without a purpose, former pianist Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone discovering her past and to make the boy who took everything from her pay.

All 17 year-old Josh Bennett wants is to build furniture and be left alone, and everyone allows it because it’s easier to pretend he doesn’t exist. When your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.

Everyone except Nastya, a hot mess of a girl who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. The more he gets to know her, the more of a mystery she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he may ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding or if he even wants to.

The Sea of Tranquility is a slow-building, character-driven romance about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.

Sometimes there are books that take my breath away, sometimes my emotions flood my soul, sometimes words cut deep into my heart, sometimes stories don’t want me to let go, sometimes I fall in love… with a character, with a paragraph, with an author… sometimes I just feel like falling.

Deep and raw, that’s how this story is.
It breaks your heart and even makes you enjoy that feeling, it plays with your mind, it makes you want to savour every word, to drown in every emotion…

Sad and troubled, this is how the characters are.
They have suffered enough to last for a lifetime, they have lost everything including their life, their hope, their identity, their faith, the ones they loved…

Beautiful and emotional, this is how the writing is.
Katja Millay will make you love her characters, her words, the whole story. She will make you read and re-read paragraph after paragraph, she will make you happy, she will make you sad, she will make you love her style…

“There are so many things that can break you if there’s nothing to hold you together.”

The characters:

Nastya has lost her identity, her old life, her dreams, everything. One moment had marked her life, turning it upside down and she doesn’t know how to “be” anymore.

She is troubled, she speaks to no one and all she wants is to find the person that changed her life and to make him pay for all her loss. Her story is told step by step, surrounded by mystery and filled with emotion. She tries to be someone else, to make people think she is totally different, to keep them away.. But deep inside all she wants is someone to share her burden with, someone to hold her, someone to take the pain away.

“I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck.”

When she meets Josh, two worlds full of tragedy collide and as different as they seem to be they share the same need to belong.

They both crave for second chances, for things to change: she wants to be whole again, to have her life back; he wants someone permanent in his life, someone to stay forever.

As much as they want to keep for themselves, to be left alone, they find out that solitude can be shared and they start to enjoy spending time together. Soon they also open their hearts one for the other and something changes drastically: Nastya starts talking again.. with Josh. But words don’t come out easily, and some secrets are not to be shared.

And then there was Drew – he was the funny one, the caring one, the naive one even though he wouldn’t think of himself that way. He was truly confident and such a cute friend. I was glad to see that there was more to him that meets the eye, that he has his own tiny ‘demons’ eating his soul, and I was glad because he was there when we needed him (lips sealed, won’t spoil a thing).

THE GOOD:
The Sea of Tranquility is a story about new beginnings, about letting go, about family and friends and finding yourself and your path. It’s an emotional story about broken souls that need nourishing and it will get straight to your heart.
The writing is beautiful, that characters strong and fleshed-out, the storyline will make you keep the book close, needing to see how things will turn out, how these characters will find the inner peace they need so badly.

THE BAD:
There were 3 things that botthered me – not that much of a spoiler, but will still mark as one: (view spoiler)
1. the breakup – there was no logic behind it, and it was poorly managed, only adding a bit of unnecessary drama (in fact, there was really no need for more, the story was quite dramatic without adding this to the pile).
2. the scene with Kevin – after all she’s been through Nastya would have acted differently in such a situation, no matter how broken she was in that moment.
3. the conversation with Aidan – for a story as emotionally realistic as this one, that scene seemed quite out of place. I couldn’t picture them talking the way they did, no matter what.

Other than that, the story was beautiful indeed. It is also full of lovely quotes, for us to keep close to our hearts. I truly enjoyed reading and re-reading this story!

CONCLUSION:
If you are looking for an emotional ride, with some great characters that will make you smile and cry, this book might be just right for you. A great contemporary romance that will break your heart a bit, but it will be well worth it.

Happy midnight reading!

Fan-Made Book Trailer:

I don’t usually feature fan-made trailers but this one is pretty nice,
I love the ‘casting’ options and the song of choice 🙂 Enjoy it!

LEAVE A COMMENT

I really want to read this book. Even though it’s hard for me to handle emotional stories (because I start feeling just sad and awful) I still love them. I love when you get the emotions from the pages right into your heart and I see this book is just that kind. Hopefully I’ll read this sometime soon and join with your love for this novel! <3

I love how you’ve said it: “get the emotions from the pages right into your heart”.
Yes, this book is like that, and I loved (almost) every bit of it, and I hope that you will as well 😀

Charlie Diaz

One thing my friends don’t understand about me is I love reading books that give readers heavy emotions. Someone recommended this to me on GR and caught my interest after reading the synopsis. After a reading a very detailed review, I’ll definitely prepare some tissues for this one.

Sometimes I feel like reading something fluffy, sometimes I want to read a book full of action, but other times I just want to “feel” a book.. And I always love it.

I had to skip “the bad” since I didn’t want to see the spoilers, but the good sounds so awesome anyway! I have an ARC of it and I really need to read it soon.

I don’t know if others had the same problems I did, we can talk about it when you get to read the book. But anyways it was pretty great, so I hope that you will love it just as much 🙂

Halle

Great review! I finished this one late last night and totally agree with you, including the “bad”. I stayed up until 2am to finish it, though, so obviously those things didn’t keep me from being completely absorbed by it, despite its flaws. 🙂

There are very very few books that I can say that they have no flaws (and if I’d stop to think about them maybe I’d find a few), it’s important though for the good things to have more impact compared to the bad ones. I am glad that you liked this story too, Halle!

Lis @ The reader lines

Dang it! I have to stop reading your reviews when I don’t have the books 🙂
I have heard a lot of this about this book but I didn’t read a review until now. And now I want to read it!!! *I even was plannig on request the ARC, but it’s late now* Anyways, thanks for another amazing review! ‘

*please, tell me to stop turning on the sun! It’s just too much! This is the cutest design ever!!!*

I know the feeling. There are some books that I am dying to read and I’ve seen some advanced reviews and I wish I’d had the chance to read them. *sigh*
But this story was pretty good so I hope that you will love it when you get the chance to read it.